Monday, October 15, 2018

Vessels & Votives Workshop at Grand Canyon :: Fall 2018 Recap

The first week of October brought a dozen creative people from around the country to the Grand Canyon. Their goal was to learn how to felt — and that's what they did! This year's Vessels & Votives workshop was hosted by Grand Canyon Association's Field Institute (thank you GCAFI for this and for all you do to preserve and protect Grand Canyon National Park). Over the weekend, Mary Rooney generously shared her dyeing expertise with the class, offering participants the opportunity to dye wool (using acid dyes) for the next day's project. We also had the pleasure of having two guest speakers join us this year: NPS Park Ranger Ahsa Jensen gave a fascinating talk about historic uses of natural fibers in the region — and GCAFI instructor Slim Woodruff shared her extensive knowledge of Grand Canyon with those early birds who attended the sunrise rim talk. Ahsa also made available dried yucca fibers that we harvested last Spring in anticipation of the class (note: one must have an NPS collection permit to do this). Overall, it was a big success with participants creating a small felted vessel or luminaria (using an 8.5" resist) on Day 1... and then really stretching themselves to create a large felted vessel (using a 21" resist) on Day 2. I am so impressed with this group! If you're interested in felting at the Grand Canyon, be sure to sign up for the felting workshop in 2019... we'd love to have you!